My Mate

Having to fork out over a five pound note for a jar of marmite got me thinking....it inspired me to write about my mate marmite.
I was brought up from the age of twelve in the Limes children's home in Stratton,this was a mixed home for boys and girls....from broken homes or in some cases the lads were naughty,stealing cars or constant stealing etc.
I was fostered before this from being a baby by a couple in the Fred and Rose West mould so although the Limes had a strict regime in many ways it was a doddle compared to what went before.
Anyway being the oldest boy for a while i had the run of the place..untill of course Marmite turned up.
My first sighting of him was him standing there with doc martens and a denim jacket looking a real hard case.
He had goofy teeth that seemed to oooze a nasty brown discharge that crusted around his mouth to form a marmite look...hence his nickname,he had a weird looking face that reminds me to this day of a fucked up looking Amy Winehouse.
Anyway Marmite soon started using his large Doc Matins on my shin on a regular basis which got me thinking of reprisals that wouldn't damage my health....it came to a head one night and as we were in the same dorm i hatched my plan.
One night when Marmite was flat out and with his nasal problems sounding like two Asthmatics having loud sex i crept forward and pinched his nostrils together tightly...within seconds the lack of air woke Marmite up in shock and his eyes were bulging and arms a flailing...so i did the most natural thing i could think of in the circumstances...smacked him in the face with a heavy book and warning him that if he kept picking on me the nostrils will get it again.
I dreaded the next morning but he had got the message,we got fairly friendly untill i found out why he was in the home....ARSON!
Bearing in mind i was sharing sleeping quarters with marmite it was a shock and many mornings i woke up to bright orange sunshine in the room thinking he was burning the fucking home down...didn't sleep for months.
To be fair to Marmite i also found out his mum died of a drugs overdose and that his dad beat him to within his life.
Marmite real name Wayne left after about a year to go to another home in Salisbury...i actually did miss his company at first and sadly i heard years later he had died in a motorbike crash...always thought something like that may happen.
A very sad lad who many years later makes me smile and laugh at his antics,i wont forget Marmite.